Low-g fluid mixing - Further results from the Tank Pressure Control Experiment

Parametric Investigation of Liquid Jets in Low Gravity

“…Advances over Aydelott included actual heat transfer data by using a condensing fluid (refrigerant 113) and longer duration. Bentz [1][2][3] was able to confirm the geysering and circulating regimes of Aydelott, but encountered an asymmetric regime between the two that was even lower heat transfer than aft collection, the lowest heat transfer regime of Aydelott. The second flight of TPCE focused mostly on rapid boiling phenomena, but contains some further tests on mixing.…”

“…Another part of this can be attributed to an increased geyser volume. In order to match the 6.5 cm at the centerline in the 10 cm tank liquid volume has increased to 3,114 cm 3 . This corresponds to a fill fraction of 49.6% rather than the 39% of the 5 cm tank.…”

“…In normal gravity the gravitational force controls and restricts the liquid jet flow, but in microgravity jets must be contained by surface tension forces. Recent NASA experiments in microgravity [1][2][3][4][5][6] have brought a wealth of data of jet behavior in microgravity. The Vented Tank ResupplyExperiment 6 was surprising in that although it contained a complex geometry of baffles and vanes the limit on liquid inflow was the emergence of a liquid jet from the top of the vane structure.…”

Status and design concepts for the hydrogen on-orbit storage and supply experiment

“…Its thermal performance determines ground hold capability and the complexity of ground operations. To start the design effort, hardware similar to existing pieces was baselined, including the radiometer dewar built for the Shuttle Pallet Satellite III (SPAS) experiment (unpublished), the LAD from Bentz (1993), and the heat exchanger-mixer assembly from Seigneur (1994). It was clear from our previous work that a 36 liter dewar similar to SPAS would not be capable of storing hydrogen for 30 days (the typical solar-thermal mission) so a larger 80 liter design study was also conducted.…”

“…Recent solar-thermal design concepts (Cady 1996a, Cady 1996b, Jacox 1996 have combined these functions into a single system which uses a thermodynamic vent system to remove energy from the liquid storage and provide propellant to the solar thermal collector. Although TVS systems have been studied extensively, they have not been proven in space and it is felt that the change in fluid configuration (see Bentz 1993 for a discussion of zero-g mixing flow patterns) could have a significant effect on their performance. Ground testing with feed system components show that for this coupled system start transients may affect predicted performance.…”